A Story Like the Wind
by Laurens van der Post
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Book Summary Information
Author: Laurens van der PostEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1978-11-08
ISBN: 0156852616
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Harvest Books
Book Reviews of A Story Like the Wind
Book Review: Merlinesque Africa
Summary: 5 Stars
Quite amazing it is that some people trashed this novel. I first picked it up on a fluke trip to a library in the Northern Rocky Mountains, fluke in the sense that avalanche hazards had the back country closed. The year must have been 1984. I've read the book three or four times since and have gotten something new out of it each time. I've also read most everything else LVP has written, even the Time-Life volume
on African Cooking that he co-edited. The author had an incredible life, which alone is worth reading about, but he also had detractors who point out that much of his autobiographical work is either inaccurate, deceptive or confabulated. These issues don't bother me. I'm willing to call it all fiction if need be - it still makes for damned interesting reading. The more relevant point is that LVP was a master teller of tales, as discussed in Storyteller: The Many Lives of Laurens van der Post by JDF Jones. LVP had the unique ability to spell-bind his audience.
About the book. Unlike some of the other positive reviewers, I didn't get all spiritually worked-up. The story was a simple coming of age story built into an African adventure with a God-dog thrown in for good measure. There is a background sense of morality and early environmentalism, but LVP neither gets preachy nor pedantic. As the flyleaf states, the book : "... evokes a Merlinesque Africa..." This is accurate in the sense that the characters are suspended in a sort of Jungian dream reality in which animals have spirit on par with humans. The Rhodesian Ridgebacks and Francois' relationship with them will have you loving the breed, and LVP's description of the breed's loyalty is dead on. The sequel- A Far Off Place- was ok, but seemed an afterthought and the movie did little justice to either of the books.
If you want to travel to Africa on a cold winter's night, this book will take you there.
Summary of A Story Like the Wind
Van der Post's incomparable knowledge of Africa illuminates this epic novel, set near the Kalahari Desert, about a boy on the verge of manhood, his experiences with the wonder and mystery of a still-primitive land, and his secret friendship with the Bushman whose life he saves. The narrative of A Story like the Wind continues in A Far-Off Place.
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